Sydney web developer Jon Clark admits that being swooped by a magpie "still gets the heart going" despite having logged tens of thousands of public encounters with defensive birds.
After an "absolutely terrifying" encounter with a swooping magpie in 2013, Clark decided to put his technical skills to use by creating the community-driven database, Magpie Alert. The website has since become the nation's pre-eminent go-to for up-to-date information on aggressive magpies.
Discovering that the information for logging and tracking the places of magpies was "pretty limited", Clark built his site, which he says "took off" in 2016.
Users can file a report on any aggressive magpie they have encountered, tagging the place of the bird, the type of attack, and the time of the incident.
As a British person who migrated to Australia some 15 years ago, Clark said the prevailing impression of Australia is that "everything's out to kill you".
Magpie Alert data shows that September is the peak of swooping season. The website receives some 4,000 to 6,000 submissions each year, with around 45,000 users logging on to read the latest updates.
Behavioural ecologist Darryl Jones told SBS News that the birds are drawn to human-created environments and have become concentrated in places where they can be supported by the local ecosystem.
Research conducted by Jones, professor emeritus at Griffith University, has shown that around 8 per cent of magpies will swoop while the large majority only go for one or two people in their territory.
In 2021, a five-month-old was killed after her mother stumbled and fell while trying to dodge a swooping magpie in Brisbane.